It didn’t take long to find where the cadets were being held. Gill looked through his map one more time and cross-referenced the surveillance videos. As it turned out, the cadets weren’t hiding. They had been captured by orcs patrolling the area.
Gill pulled up a couple of videos that had been taken before the power shut off. It looked like the orcs were regularly patrolling the area, making sure no one came for the cadets. “Great, this just went from stupid to impossible,” Brath grumbled.
“Are there any breaks in their pattern?” Alex asked. “Or are they just checking in every couple of minutes?’
Gill scrolled past a few videos. “It doesn’t look like there’s a pattern,” he admitted. “I think they just come in when they want. They aren’t even checking up that often.”
“So, all we gotta do is slip in and out fast. Real sneaky-like. Sounds easy enough.”
Gill chuckled softly, the sound reverberating in the silence of the corridor. “You know, you’re a little reckless.”
“Yeah, just a little.”
Chapter Four
The cadet dragonriders pressed their ears to the walls, hoping the walls were thin enough to hear through. Gill had brought them to where he said the other cadets were being held. Alex couldn’t hear anything. The walls weren’t as thin as she had hoped.
Gill looked at his map one more time, checking to see if there were any orcs patrolling the area. It looked clear. “Where will we take them?” Gill suddenly asked, realizing there was a massive gap in their plan.
Alex wracked her brain, trying to think of a place the other cadets might be safe. “Uh, I guess we’ll just bring them with us,” she finally said. “They’re all cadets too. That means they’re probably bound to dragons as well. More fighters for the battle.”
Gill’s eyes went wide. “Wait, you didn’t say anything about a battle!”
Alex turned to face the drow. “What did you think we were going to get our dragons for? To run away? We can’t leave everyone here without helping.”
Gill nodded that he understood before looking back down at his map. “It’s just that you weren’t specific about wanting to fight.”
An arm broke through the wall and wrapped itself around Alex’s throat. Alex let out a sharp yelp as she was pulled through the wall by the muscular gray arm of an orc.
The orc tossed Alex across the room, and she hit the opposite wall with a heavy thud. She would have assumed the force of the impact would knock her out. It didn’t and Alex, surprised, got to her feet. Her back still hurt like hell, though. “Huh, that’s new,” she muttered.
There wasn’t any time to revel in her realization because the orc who had grabbed her was running toward her.
The cadets in the room started screaming and asking for help as Alex tried to get her bearings.
The room was still pitch-black. Even though the orc had managed to snag her through the wall, it didn’t seem to be able to find her in the dark room. The place was larger than Alex had assumed, based on the map Gill had shown her.
That was when Alex remembered the Nest was plugged into everyone who was residing within it—everyone other than the invaders. The room had probably expanded based on Alex’s need, and she needed a very large room at the moment.
Alex turned and ran as she shouted, “Jollies, find me. I have an idea!” She knew she was going to give away her position, but it was more important that Jollies know where she was. If Jollies came for her, the rest of them would as well. Then they’d have a chance against the orc.
Alex wasn’t sure she could take the orc by herself. She preferred not to think about it chasing after her, gnashing its teeth and waiting to sink its blade into her chest. She had managed to kill one before, and it hadn’t been too hard.
There’s no way I could have done that back on Earth, Alex thought as she realized she wasn’t having any trouble breathing. She hadn’t been unfit before, but physical education wasn’t her strong suit.
It seemed like Alex’s body had been given an upgrade since she had arrived at the Wasp’s Nest. Maybe her Captain America theory wasn’t wrong after all.
She wasn’t sure if it was the realm she was in (honestly, she was still confused as to exactly where the Nest was) or if it was her armor.
Suddenly, the prospect of fighting an orc didn’t seem as terrible. Maybe she wasn’t as weak and defenseless as she’d thought. Maybe she was just scared, and being scared was something she could deal with.
Alex ran straight ahead, hoping she wasn’t going to run into a wall, but the wall never came. She could still hear the orc behind her.
It was time for the first step of the plan. Alex stopped, turned around, and sprinted straight back the way she had come.
As Alex ran, she could hear the orc getting closer, but it was somewhere to the side. She had figured the orc was going to be searching, walking back and forth, unaware of exactly where Alex was.
It didn’t take long to sprint past the orc and around the corner.
Now was the hard part. Alex stopped running and pulled up her blindfold a little bit. She could see the faint outlines of her friends in the darkness, and she ran toward them. “Jollies!” she whispered as loud as she could.
It was enough for Jollies to hear. The pixie came racing over to Alex. “There you are,” she exclaimed. “Where are the other—”
“We’re going to worry about them in a second. We have to deal with that orc before he catches us again. Can you control your colors?”
“Yeah, if I try hard.”
“Can you make them brighter?”
“I might be able to.”
That was enough for Alex. It was going to be a gamble, but Alex realized
